1. Field Of The Invention
The system of the present invention relates to lubrication systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for lubricating a portion of the threaded stud portion in large construction bolts in order to apply a thin even coat of lubrication onto a threaded portion of the bolt.
2. General Background
In various settings of the construction industry, steel components utilized in construction are usually assembled by bolting the components together. For example, in scaffolding used in construction, or on plant sites, where flanged connections are utilized, the connections are usually held together via a series of large bolts with a nut threadably engaged to the end of the bolt. When these components are disassembled, in order to service a system in the plant or to change out the components, the nuts are disengaged from the bolt, and, of course, when reassembly takes place, the nuts are rethreaded onto the bolts.
One problem confronted in this process is the fact that it is very beneficial to have a portion of the end of the stud portion of the bolt lubricated so that the nut will reengage onto the bolt quite easily and without serious effort. In the present state of the art, lubricating the end of the stud is routine practice, and is usually accomplished manually by a worker applying a layer lubricant such as a heavy grease to the end of the stud with the use of a brush or the like utensil. Several problems arise in this method of lubricating the bolts. The first is that in order to accomplish this task, in a setting where there may be thousands of bolts involved, the task of manually brushing the lubricant onto the surface of the bolt stud is very time consuming and labor intensive. Secondly, because of the fact that the lubricant is very expensive, the lubricant need only be applied as a very thin layer on a stud, and therefore the use of a brush usually results in an over-application of lubricant and therefore, a large quantity of lubricant is wasted since the nut, when threaded onto the bolt, in effect, squeezes all of the excess lubricant out of the threads and the lubricant is then lost.
Therefore, it would be very beneficial in the industry to have a system that would apply the lubricant onto the portion of the threaded stud evenly, quickly, and in a very thin layer, so as to reduce the time, effort and costs involved in applying the lubricant to the threaded portion of the stud, and yet apply a sufficient quantity of lubricant so that the nut rethreads onto the bolt quite easily after the lubrication process has taken place.